Dave Maass

Dave Maass

Senior Investigative Researcher

As EFF's senior investigative researcher, Dave Maass is a muckraker/noisemaker, covering issues related to police surveillance, free speech, transparency, and government accountability. In addition to leading deep-dive investigations, Dave coordinates large-scale public records campaigns, advocates on state legislation, and compiles The Foilies, EFF's annual tongue-in-cheek awards for outrageous responses to FOIA requests. He sometimes represents EFF in digital rights-themed cosplay at Dragon Con, and he edited EFF's first science fiction collection, Pwning Tomorrow. He also researches virtual reality as part of the team that developed Spot the Surveillance, EFF's first VR experience. Contact him with questions or information on police technology (e.g. automated license plate readers, biometric identification), prisoner rights, or public records laws.

Dave is currently Visiting Professor of Media Technology at the University of Nevada, Reno Reynolds School of Journalism.

Before joining EFF, Dave wrote for alt weeklies in every state along the southern border, reporting on everything from Texas death row to San Diego Comic-Con. He has moderated dark-horse presidential debates on public access TV; organized digital media on barely legal road rallies; performed spoken word on a British art-rock tour, and revealed human-rights abuses in Ghanaian refugee camps. His political investigations uncovered embezzlement that ultimately put a New Mexico elected official behind bars and misconduct resulting in the severe censure and fines levied against a San Diego County Superior Court Judge. His work on incarceration has been used to support civil rights lawsuits, detention system reform, and state legislation.

His investigative reporting on incarceration in San Diego County was honored with the Youth Law Center's Loren Warboys Unsung Hero Award and the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement's Contribution to Oversight Award. He has also won top honors from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and the Society of Professional Journalists San Diego Chapter. In 2017, Dave was a recipient of the First Amendment Coalition's Free Speech and Open Government Award alongside EFF Senior Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch and the ACLU of Southern California's Director of Police Practices Peter Bibring. He also served on the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force from 2016-2018.

Former Mayor of Lemon Grove Mary Sessom has added her voice to the rising chorus for statewide surveillance technology transparency in California.
In a letter to the California state Senate and President pro Tempore Kevin de León in support of S.B. 21, Sessom describes her own pursuit of accurate...

Police in California have your data literally at their fingertips. They can sit at a computer terminal or in their squad car and check your DMV records, your criminal records, your parking citations, any restraining orders you’ve filed or have been filed against you. They can search other state databases...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU of California joined forces with California State Sen. Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) on Tuesday to testify in favor of S.B. 712, a bill that would have allowed drivers to cover their license plates when parked in order to protect their travel patterns...

All surveillance is political.Nowhere is this more evident than on the local level when law enforcement acquires new surveillance technology. Too often, the political process advantages police over the public interest. In California, a new bill—S.B. 21—offers the rare opportunity to shift the balance in favor of privacy. ...

More than a dozen state legislatures are considering a bill called the “Human Trafficking Prevention Act,” which has nothing to do with human trafficking and all to do with one man’s crusade against pornography at the expense of free speech.
At its heart, the model bill would require device...

Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) may be the most common mass surveillance technology in use by local law enforcement around the country—but they're not always used in the same way.Typically, ALPR systems are comprised of high-speed cameras connected to computers that photograph every license plate that passes. The photo is...

Update (12:00 p.m., March 28, 2017): A.B. 1104 has been pulled and will not be heard in committee today.
Memo to California Assemblymember Ed Chau: you can’t fight fake news with a bad law.
On Tuesday, the California Assembly’s Committee on Privacy and Consumer Affairs, which Chau chairs, will...